CITIZENS’ Coalition for Change leader Nelson Chamisa says the continued denial of bail to opposition MP Job Sikhala “is pure abuse and weaponising of the law”.
Sikhala has been detained at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison for more than two months, awaiting trial on charges of inciting violence and obstructing justice.
He was arrested on 14 June 2022, alongside Chitungwiza North MP Godfrey Sithole and 14 others from Nyatsime for demanding justice for slain Citizens’ Coalition for Change activist Moreblessing Ali. Ali is yet to be buried because her distraught family is demanding that Sikhala, who is the family lawyer, be released from prison first.
Ali’s family says it has been hounded away from its Chitungwiza home by Zanu PF thugs.
“The Nyatsime 16 detention is oppressive and despotic. The Zimbabwean supreme law makes bail a constitutional right,” Chamisa said.
Sikhala, described as a political prisoner by human rights defenders, has been locked up for 78 days.
Early this month, the incarcerated lawmaker wrote to the African Union, regional bodies and international human rights organisations about the deteriorating political situation and collapse in rule of law in Zimbabwe.-STAFF WRITER
